The vote came after a final plea by Communications Minister Stephen Conroy. It allowed the bill to progress to a committee stage where amendments were expected to be brought by the Greens, independents and other Senators.

Conroy had told the Senate that amendments proposed by the Coalition were "unnecessary".

"The choice is clear," Conroy said.

"You can have a bunch or wreckers who want to destroy the NBN because they believe it's their path to destroy the Government....," he said before he was cut off because time had expired.

Conroy had said that passage of the bill was important because the "existing telecommunications regime will remain important during the NBN rollout".

"This bill is designed to reshape that regime," he said. "It's about reforming a regime that the entire industry agrees is broken".

The Government still faced a battle winning over key independents to pass the bill a third and final time.

Senator Nick Xenophon indicated last night he would hold out for the release of the NBN Co business plan before he cast his final vote, despite the offer of a private briefing and meetings with the Prime Minister, NBN Co and Telstra.

More vitriol

The vote came after Coalition Senators again lined up to slam Conroy for refusing to release the NBN Co business case.

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